


Happy! Halloween

by Byhookorbicrook



Category: Happy! (TV 2017)
Genre: AU where everything is fine, Domestic Fluff, Fatherhood, Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26129779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byhookorbicrook/pseuds/Byhookorbicrook
Summary: AU one-off where everything is fine and Nick’s a good dad and takes his daughter trick-or-treating
Relationships: Amanda Hansen/Nick Sax
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Happy! Halloween

Nick was sweating bullets, which was a far cry from his normal relationship to bullets. He’d been less nervous in actual, bloody shootouts than he was now, standing in front of the screen door of Amanda’s townhouse and waiting for Hailey to appear. 

Nick had a plastic bucket in his hand shaped like a jack-o-lantern, and he was gripping it hard enough to nearly snap the handle. He hoped that Hailey would like his costume, which he’d thrown together at the last minute—he had an idiotic headband on his head with a golden horn, and a set of cheap, knock-off wings that he’d tried to spray-paint blue. He wasn’t exactly the spitting image of Happy, but he’d done his best. Maybe Hailey was old enough to understand that it was the thought that counted, rather than the shoddy execution. Nick had never been particularly artistic or creative, except when it came to hand-to-hand combat. 

He almost swallowed his own tongue when the door opened and Amanda greeted him with an easy smile—there was a sparkle behind her eyes that made Nick’s heart melt. 

“I, uh—hhh,” Nick started awkwardly. “Amanda! Happy Halloween. You look, um.”

“Love the costume,” Amanda said with a wry smile, reaching up to boop the tip of the golden horn on Nick’s forehead. “She’ll like it. She’s still upstairs getting dressed. Gotta look perfect for her dad.”

Nick fumbled over his words for a minute and then said, “Right, right. Halloween only happens once a year, I guess.” 

“I should warn you,” Amanda said, her voice taking on an edge that made Nick assume the worst. “Her costume is a little bit…unique.” 

“So’s mine,” Nick said, shrugging his shoulders to gesture lazily toward his feathery wings. Amanda stifled a laugh, but then grew serious again.

“Just be supportive,” she said.

“Supportive is my middle name.”

“Hm. You must have changed it since the divorce, then,” Amanda said keenly. She regretted the words instantly, especially when she saw Nick’s smile falter a little bit. In order to make up for it, she gestured for him to come inside and said, “Sorry. That wasn’t fair. Here’s to putting the past behind us, right?”

“Right,” said Nick, still feeling a bit hurt, but more than willing to forgive Amanda for virtually anything. She’d forgiven him, after all—maybe not completely, but at least enough to let him be a part of Hailey’s life and give him the chance to be a father to her. No one had ever given Nick a chance like that before, and it meant the world to him. He hoped he could live up to it. “So, uh, how have you been? Been doing lots of…dentist-related stuff? Lots of teeth? Or something?”

“You always had such a way with words,” Amanda said dryly. She pushed Nick in the direction of the sofa to put an end to his nervous twitching, then headed to the kitchen to fetch herself a drink. “Want anything?”

 _Yeah…I want you_ , Nick thought, even though he didn’t dare to say it. “Just a, uh. Ginger ale?”

Amanda brought him a ginger ale, as requested, and an iced tea for herself. She settled next to him on the sofa—not quite as close as Nick would have liked, but a lot closer than he’d ever expected. He swallowed a lump in his throat and then averted his eyes, scanning the room until his gaze fell on a framed picture of Hailey on the wall. 

“Nick,” Amanda said, catching his attention again. “I can tell you’re nervous.”

“Me? Nervous? Never,” Nick lied.

“It’ll be fine. It’s just trick-or-treating.”

“I mean, yeah, but—that’s, uh, not exactly my area of expertise.”

“Hm. No?”

“No,” said Nick. His area of expertise was throat-punching people directly to hell, and he and Amanda both knew it. 

“Well, it looks to me like you’re already doing a great job,” Amanda said, her voice softer and more sincere than Nick had anticipated. “Look at you. You’ve got your jack-o-lantern, you’ve got a costume, you’re on time. Those things mean a lot, Nick. Especially to her.”

“She’s taking a while,” Nick said, trying to ignore the fact that he could _feel_ himself starting to blush, which made him more uncomfortable and vulnerable than anything. “I uh—she didn’t get kidnapped again between now and the last time you saw her, right? Because if she did then I can, uh—I’ll just go deal with that again, like last time.”

Amanda didn’t laugh, but she did press her lips together and smile dryly. “No, Nick. She’s fine. Finally, for once, everything is _fine_.” 

As if on cue, Hailey came skipping eagerly down the stairs with a cacophony of excited laughter and a wide, overzealous grin on her face. 

“Dad!” she cried, unable to contain her excitement at the sight of Nick. 

Nick stared at her, shocked into a horrified silence. 

“You’re, uh,” he said, mortified. “You’re…Santa Claus?”

He was _absolutely_ certain that this was some sort of fucked up PTSD symptom. Hailey’s bright red suit and bushy, synthetic white beard would have looked comical if it hadn’t been for the memories they brought back—Nick’s heart sank, and he found himself wishing that Hailey could have picked something _normal_ , like every other kid. A horrible goblin, or a superhero, or a unicorn like him, maybe. 

“Duh, of course I’m Santa,” said Hailey, clearly unbothered by it. She giggled, obviously pleased with how much her costume was frightening him. “It’s scary, right?”

“I, uhhhh—yeah, sure is, sweetheart.”

“I wanted to be a hitman, but Mom wouldn’t let me,” Hailey sighed. 

“Oh. Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” said Nick. 

“Nick! Language,” Amanda reminded him. She beckoned Hailey over, and their daughter joined them eagerly on the sofa, snuggling up between them and blowing bits of synthetic white beard out of her mouth. 

“I love your costume, Dad,” Hailey said, admiring the gerryrigged wings on Nick’s back, bursting with pride. “You look just like Happy!”

“Right? I clearly missed my calling as an imaginary friend,” Nick agreed. 

Hailey gave him a big, warm hug that almost broke Nick’s spirit completely. He tried to steel himself, looking at Amanda with a panicked and absolutely smitten expression on his face while he wrapped his arms around his daughter. He buried his face into the thick curls of her hair. The sensation was completely unfamiliar—not just the sensation of getting to actually _hug_ his kid like this, but also the weird, tingly feeling brimming up in his sinuses and underneath his eyes. He sniffed it away, determined not to cry in front of Amanda. 

Hailey snuggled her face into his coat and then looked up at him. Now Nick could see the resemblance that Amanda had talked about; she _did_ have his eyes, even if the color was off. There was no mistaking it when she smiled up at him with that lazy, lackadaisical grin. 

“Right. So uh, trick-or-treating,” Nick managed, his voice a little bit hoarse. He cleared his throat to try to cover up the vulnerability. “We’ll start just up and down the block, yeah? See how much candy we can weasel out of these losers? If it ain’t enough we can aim higher, try and hit up one of those swanky upper-crust neighborhoods, maybe.”

“Sounds awesome,” Hailey agreed excitedly. 

“And obviously uh, if someone gives you an apple, check it for razorblades and shit.” 

“Nick, _language_ ,” Amanda said again, her gaze hardening into a warning glare. 

“Sorry,” Nick corrected. “Razorblades and _stuff._ ”

“No one actually does that anymore, Dad.”

“You never know, better safe than sorry.”

“You should probably get going, or the other kids will have already gotten all of the good candy,” Amanda said. She laid a loving hand on Hailey’s head, readjusting the Santa hat and then giving Nick a little smile. “And remember to be back by eight. It might be Halloween, but Hailey’s still got school in the morning.” 

“Two hours? Easy,” Nick snorted. “I mean c’mon, we can get a buttload of candy in two hours, right, Hailey?”

“ _Heck_ yeah,” Hailey confirmed. “Buttloads.”

“Enough to make ourselves sick for days!”

“Heck yeah!”

Nick grabbed her and swept her up in his arms, spinning her around once just to listen to the laugh that it brought out of her, and then set her down and clinked his Jack-o-lantern bucket against hers as if it were a champagne toast. 

“Let’s go show ‘em who’s the scariest girl on the block,” he said. 

Amanda watched the two of them with an adoring expression on her face. She almost looked like she forgave him—almost, but not quite. Still, it was enough to see Hailey happy. 

“Don’t eat _too_ much chocolate right off the bat, it’s bad for your teeth,” she reminded them, standing up to usher the pair of them out the door. “And Nick, you can call me if you need anything. I’m here for you.”

Those words made Nick’s heart flutter, and he blustered incoherently for a minute before stammering out, “I—uh, right. Right! Yeah, Amanda, I…thanks. I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

He held the door open for Hailey and she skipped out onto the sidewalk, already itching to hit up the neighbors for candy. Nick’s feathery wings got caught on the screen door when he tried to follow her, and Amanda untangled him with a few gentle touches and a soft, disarming smile. She lingered there for a second, looking for all the world as if she were thinking about giving him a peck on the cheek, and then gave him another little push in Hailey’s direction. 

“Back by eight,” she said one last time before she shut the door. 

Nick lumbered down the stairs and joined Hailey on the sidewalk. 

“Alright, kiddo,” he said. “What’s our strategy? Lay out the game plan for me. Good cop bad cop? Full-on guns-blazing blitzkrieg? Whaddya thinkin’?”

“Hmm,” Hailey considered. She thought about it for a minute, stroking her fake Santa beard and rapping her fingertips against the fibers. “Let’s do good cop bad cop.” 

“Which one do you wanna be?”

“I’ll be the good cop,” Hailey said. “I’m cuter.”

“Pfft. Says you.”

“I am, though!”

“Nah, c’mon, kid, look at this mug,” Nick said, pointing to his face. “Who could say no to this?”

“Daaaaaaaad!”

“Ah, fine, you win. You’re cuter.”

Hailey beamed with pride through her fake beard and said, “Knew it!”

“I was never any good at the whole _good cop_ thing anyways,” Nick admitted with a chuckle. “So, you know the game? Or do we need to talk tactics?” 

“I got this, Dad. Leave it to me.”

“I’ll play backup. Let’s go get ‘em, yeah?”

“ _Hell_ yeah,” said Hailey, giggling. Nick gave her a wry smile and thought about correcting her language, but he let it slide just this once. It was Halloween, after all, and he didn’t want to do anything to burst Hailey’s bubble. Besides, rules were made to be broken. 

Nick followed at a distance while Hailey made her way to the neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. He loved seeing her so excited. He’d seen kids on Halloween before, but there was something uniquely heartwarming about seeing his _own_ kid trick-or-treating. 

When the door opened, the neighbor greeted Hailey with a quizzical look—her Halloween costume wasn’t exactly traditional, after all. 

“Trick or treat!” Hailey exclaimed.

“Wow! Um, Santa! How cute,” said the neighbor with a laugh. Hailey was rewarded with two paltry little pieces of candy. Nick crossed his arms over his chest and gave the neighbor a firm, hard glare, the same type that he’d always used back on the police force when he was questioning murder suspects. The deadly energy in his stare must have been enough to spook the neighbor into submission, because Hailey quickly received another fistful of candy. 

“Hahaha, um,” said the neighbor awkwardly, casting a fearful little glance at Nick. “H-happy Halloween, sweetie, have a great night.”

The door shut hastily once Hailey turned her back. She flashed Nick a smile through her beard, shaking the candy in her basket, and then offered him a few pieces.

“Here’s your cut,” she said. 

“You short-changin’ me, kid?”

“I did most of the work,” Hailey insisted. 

“Pffft. You wish,” Nick snorted. “It’s always the bad cop who does most of the work, you can put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.” 

“What?” 

“Uhhhh...nevermind.” 

Hailey slipped her hand into his and led him off toward the next house, dragging him eagerly behind. Nick was more than willing to let her pull him along. 

After all, it _was_ the happiest Halloween he’d ever had. 


End file.
